I don't think I ever really said anything about New Orleans. We stayed at a historic bed and breakfast, went on a lot of tours, and wandered around the French Quarter. The place we were staying is rented out by a young woman who was away in Washington visiting her boyfriend for most of the time we were there. The "breakfast" was muffins and orange juice in a fridge. The place was really nice, on a street that turned into Bourbon street once you walked like a block down.
We went on a tour of a plantation called Oak Alley, the front path coming up to the front of the house from the Mississippi River was lined with huge old Oak trees. That tour included a swamp tour, which we actually went to first, and that was neat. We saw a lot of big alligators and got to hold little tiny alligators. Also, a huge spider, which we thankfully did not hold, and a million raccoons which I never imagined could be so cute (the one that used to live in our backyard that my dad had to chase away with a chair was not cute, it was mangy and awful).
We went on a "Haunted History Tour" and a "Voodoo and Cemetary tour". My dad didn't like the former, but it was more interesting, though not necessarily scary (The one guide was a good storyteller). The cemetary/voodoo tour was neat, the cemetary was old and full of tombs, and the history was interesting in and of itself. At the end, the tour guide for the latter tour left us at a vioodoo priestess's temple/shop, and she was strange but still rather spiritual, if you know what I mean. She was probably just crazy. We also went on a ferry/steam/paddle boat ride up and down the Mississippi River, which was cool. We got beignet's and cafe au lait at Cafe Dumonde, and those were both delicious.
